Cabrera-Bello Among Early Leaders at Munich

Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello was one of three players to shoot a 7-under 65 to hold a share of the lead after one round at the BMW International Open in Munich on Thursday.

Despite two bogeys in his first eight holes, Cabrera-Bello strung together two separate streaks of three straight birdies.

He’s tied for the lead with Norway’s Lasse Jensen, ranked 515th in the world, and England’s Daniel Gaunt, ranked 564th. Jensen played a bogey-free round and finished with birdies on four of his last five holes, while Gaunt hit four in a row between 9 and 12.

Sitting two strokes back are four top 30 Race to Dubai contenders, including world No. 7 Henrik Stenson. Stenson would have had the outright lead – he was 5-under at the turn and 7-under through 12, only to record an ugly triple-bogey 7 on No. 16.

A full 83 players were at least 1-stroke under par, but not among them was local favorite Martin Kaymer. After completely missing the cut at last week’s US Open, Kaymer staggered out of the gate with a bogey on No. 1, a double-bogey 6 on No. 4 and another bogey on NO. 8 to sit 2-over at the turn. He managed to make it back to par by round’s end.